Truly, Madly, Deeply
by Lune-Solei
Summary: I want to stand with you on a mountain, I want to lay like this forever... Jeremie and Aelita learn that sometimes fairytale endings do happen. JxA


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Code Lyoko or "Truly, Madly, Deeply." The song is property of the wonderful Savage Garden and the show is property of Antefilms.

**Rating:** G.

**Pairing:** JxA. Amazing, right?

**Author's Note:** My latest Savage Garden song-fic. I hope you all enjoy it! This is in response to Sithking Zero's request a few months back and I've just finally gotten around to it. I hope you all enjoy it!

**Dedication:** To Sithking Zero for being patient. For all of those who read _Supposed To_ and didn't care for the end pairing. For Ems who is still silent. For Rae who encourages me. Thank you.

**I'll be your dream   
I'll be your wish I'll be your fantasy  
I'll be your hope I'll be your love  
Be everything that you need  
I'll love you more with every breath  
Truly, madly, deeply do **

He rescued her.

That's usually how all the fairytales went. A knight, shining silver from the sunlight on his armor, riding high on a magnificent stallion, with a shield and sword would come to rescue the princess fair. She would usually be trapped in a high tower and he would defeat the dragon, the evil witch, the traitorous king, the gluttonous prince – the computer virus – and he would save her. They would live happily ever after.

But those were fairytales and such things didn't exist in the real world anymore, or so she was told.

It didn't matter though. She had been saved – by her very own knight. Granted he wasn't in sunlit armor but rather a blue turtleneck and glasses when they first met. She hadn't been fair either. She had been pink haired with elf-like features and vivid green eyes. There were no dragons or evil witches holding her captive and as far as she knew she wasn't anything special. But she had been in a tower and he had set out on a quest to save her.

The princess had found her fairytale knight.

**I will be strong I will be faithful  
'cause I'm counting on  
A new beginning  
A reason for living  
A deeper meaning, yeah**

Her fingers brush against the cold stone. They trace the hairline fractures, dance across deep grooves, slide over smooth planes, and scratch against dirt and grime. The wind is harsh and it plays vicious games with her pink hair, tugging it this way and that – like an unruly child on a playground. She smiles faintly as she bows her head and inhales deeply.

"Aelita?"

She sits up straighter, dragging her legs beneath her and noticing for the first time that she can't feel her toes. It's a strange sensation – not one she's familiar with. Storm banks are blowing in from the north and she shivers, wrapping her arms around herself as her protector, her knight, comes and crouches next to her.

"What's wrong, what is it?" he asks softly. His arm finds its way around her slim body, holding her close and offering her the warmth she desperately craves. "Talk to me, Aelita. What's wrong?"

"Do you think he wants me to be happy?"

"What?" He looks over her shoulder, at the stone that's just beginning to crumble. Words carved deep stare back at him. _Franz Hopper. Loving Father. Find Rest Wherever Your Journey Takes You._ Aelita had picked them out herself a few years ago. "Your father?"

"Yes. Do you think he's proud? Do you think he's happy I've escaped?"

"Yes, I do." He looks down at her, a small smile tugging at the usually stoic mouth. "I think he's happy you're getting the chance to experience life once again."

She smiles up at him. "Me too." And she leans in, kissing him lightly before standing. "Come on, I'm cold."

**I want to stand with you on  
a mountain  
I want to bathe with you in the sea  
I want to lay like this forever  
Until the sky falls down on me**

He had given her a chance.

He had given up years of his life in order to insure her safety. She knew that she would never be able to pay him back for it but he didn't seem to want payment. He didn't want anything more than to see her happy and she was. She had grown a lot in the years since Lyoko had been shut down and she had learned to love the world she was in.

She smiles at him, hand in hand, as they cross the rows of raised stones and frozen flowers. The storm finally breaks free – howling wind and freezing rain mixed with slushy snow. She squeals, holding him tighter and he drags her under an old willow tree to wait out the worst of it.

"Do you remember?" she asks and he turns to her. The question is in his eyes and she grins, wrapping her arms tightly around him. "Do you remember my first storm here, Jeremie? I was frightened and I stayed the whole night in your room shivering and you had to explain it all to me. When the power went out I thought it was Xana coming to get me."

He smiles, arms tightening around her. "I remember," he replies, a fond smile appearing. "I also remember that you kissed me for the first time that night and couldn't understand my blush."

"You always had a cute blush," she replies, light dancing in her green eyes.

**And when the stars are shining  
brightly in the velvet sky,  
I'll make a wish send it to heaven  
Then make you want to cry  
The tears of joy for all the  
pleasure in the certainty  
That we're surrounded by the  
comfort and protection of**

"Jeremie?" she whispers. He turns to her as they lay on the cool grass. It's a clear summer's night – the night that her knight in shining spectacles finally freed her.

"Yes?" he replies uncertainly. Her eyes remain fixed to the stars above, her lips parted slightly and her hair whispers along with the tall grass. She is beautiful. A princess from another world that he was finally able to free. He defeated the evil that surrounded her and now would come their fairytale ending.

"I love you."

It was unexpected but not unwanted. He sits up slowly, pushing the glasses firmly back in place and stares at her openly. She turns finally, green eyes shining as bright as the grass they lay on and a hand reaches up to brush slim fingers against his cold cheek.

"Do you love me?"

Her voice is soft as she sits up. Her fingers slide from his cheek to his neck, down his arm to entwine with his own fingers. She gives him a soft smile and she looks ethereal. He can almost imagine her in a medieval France, wearing fine gowns and delicate crowns. She is his princess and he knows he is nothing without her.

"More than anything," he murmurs. Her smile is as bright as the stars above as she throws her arms around him and hugs him tight. His senses are assaulted with the scent of strawberry shampoo.

"Promise to never leave me."

"I promise."

**The highest powers  
In lonely hours  
The tears devour you**

"Are you better now?" he asks as the storm continues to rage around them.

She looks up at him, the tears drying on her face, replaced by winter rain and snow. "Yes, thank you, Jeremie." Her head rests against his shoulder. "I don't know what I would do without you."

His fingers tangle in her hair and his breath warms her frozen ear. "You don't have to worry. I'm right here. I'll always be right here."

**I want to stand with you on  
a mountain  
I want to bathe with you in the sea  
I want to lay like this forever  
Until the sky falls down on me**

In the fairytales everything was always solved at the end of the story. When evil was vanquished and good triumphed. Children were brought up believing these ideals until they hit middle school, high school, life. Then the ideals are ripped away from before their eyes – shred by shred.

The witch returns with another bushel of apples. The dragon had only gone into hibernation in order to recoup from the minor wounds its scales had encountered. The traitorous king had simply fled from his palace to a reinforced castle to gather his henchmen. The gluttonous prince had simply gathered reinforcements from allied countries.

And the computer virus found a new host.

The fairytales never showed these twists in fate. Never explained what happened to the princess after she was rescued by her knight. Whether or not she went on and married him or whether she was forced to wed one who was noble. It never showed the wounds sustained by the knight as he fought valiantly for his princess.

The dragon's talons, the witch's poison, the king's wrath, the prince's sword or the virus's affect upon his mind. No. It was all summed up into nice, neat words. _And they lived Happily Ever After_.

**Oh can you see it baby?  
You don't have to close your eyes**   
**'Cause it's standing right  
before you  
All that you need will surely come**

"The storm's ending," he whispers into her hair. "Aelita, time to get up, the storm's almost over."

He pulls back slightly and looks down at her. Her eyes are closed and her breathing is shallow but even. Faint to sight and faint to touch. He frowns, running chilled fingers over the cold skin of her cheek.

"Aelita!" he yells. She jerks awake, eyeing him reproachfully and he lets out a sigh of relief, pulling her close. "I thought I'd lost you for a minute," he whispers into the still night.

She laughs quietly, tiredly, and wraps her arms around him tighter. "You'll never lose me Jeremie. You made sure of that." Her bright eyes met his. "I love you Jeremie. I won't leave you."

He pulled her close, kissing her deeply as the willow wept remnant tears of cold rain drops around them.

**I'll be your dream I'll be your wish   
I'll be your fantasy  
I'll be your hope I'll be your love  
Be everything that you need  
I'll love you more with every breath   
Truly, madly, deeply do**

In the fairytales it never goes much farther beyond the knight or prince or whoever rescuing the princess and marrying her. It doesn't describe the hardships later faced of drought, famine, epidemics, and plague. It doesn't show the cruelty of the court with whispered words hidden behind fans and gloved hands.

But it also doesn't go into details of the birth of the future rulers. Of the laws that are created to cut taxes, to reinforce the knights, to help farmers with their plots of land. It doesn't show the darkness receding from the land, returning, and then being driven out again. It doesn't show the times changing or the love growing.

The fairytales are the simplest form a story can take and yet they end the best. Happily ever after and all that it entails. There is no need to worry about what faces the two heroes of the story because everyone knows that no matter what comes their way – even if the computer virus rears again in fifteen years to a new generation – it will be conquered and everyone will live. Happily. Ever. After.

Because fairytales do come true, as far as she is concerned. She found her knight in the darkest time of her life and he gave her a new life. A better life. She has stood by him through it all and he has stayed by her, urging her on and loving her all the more. And they, as well as their friends, did learn something throughout the years.

Some stories do end in happily ever after.

**I want to stand with you on  
a mountain  
I want to bathe with you in the sea  
I want to lay like this forever  
Until the sky falls down on me**

**I want to stand with you on a  
mountain  
I want to bathe with you in the sea  
I want to live like this forever  
Until the sky falls down on me**


End file.
